John Wick Vol. 1

Product Information

Granted, I will admit John is pretty close to himself and the lines are easy to read in Keanu's voice (in part because the character is drawn to resemble the actor), so that kept me reading even after Discount Harley Quinn made me die of second hand embarrassment. John manages to escape, taking a pin from one of the assassins, and goes back to New York, where he meets Winston - now excommunicado - who tells John that the pin represents loyalty to the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, the High Table member in charge of his manhunt, and the only way John can get his freedom is to challenge de Gramont for a duel on behalf of a crime family. They were also inspired by comic book aesthetics, which is why the production design often looks like a shifting watercolor painting.

Big Damn Heroes: When Charon is cornered by a dozen of assassins with no exit in sight, John bursts through the window with nothing but a cushion and takes them all out in a matter of seconds. With John Wick's extraordinary fighting and healing abilities as well as constant death-defying stunts, John might as well be considered a superhero for all that he is incredibly able to accomplish. The art is fine but it fails to capture the brutal beauty on display in the films, all of which boast some of the most gorgeous cinematography of the last few years. It also doesn't help that, the story doesn't take any effort to really flesh out John's past, beyond 'an orphan trained by some mysterious organization'. Under the Director's supervision, John was trained as a hitman and learned combat skills in martial arts, firearms and other weaponry, tactical driving, infiltration, escapology, and more.

The John Wick universe has revealed itself in small doses over the course of three movies, and it's in Chapter 2 that we find out part of John's extraordinary power is partially due to a turbo-charged suit that also includes bulletproof "tactical" lining. The comic series is a prequel to the original film from 2014, much like the tie in video game John Wick Hex. Talking to Exclaim, Stahelski said these are simply the kinds of things that happen with even the most experienced stunt crew, which makes what they're doing in John Wick much closer to real life.

Kolstad told Polygon, "I loved those noir-ish movies where you had East Germany and West Germany, you had the two different agents, but as soon as they're in Switzerland, it's like, 'Well, all right, let's get a drink.Maybe it's just that a static medium like comics cannot capture the kineticism of the films, but I found this whole thing underwhelming. In the John Wick universe, this same medieval system of feudalism inspires the High Table and its functionality. Outside of serving as random chaos to make us hate the Three Bills and setting up John’s vendetta, its just simply not a scenario that’s done well. The comics reveals through flashbacks Wick was once a petty criminal in the streets of El Sauzel, Baja California.

Pak wrote the "Princess Who Saved Herself" children's book and the “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel based on the songs of Jonathan Coulton and co-wrote (with Fred Van Lente) the acclaimed “Make Comics Like the Pros” how-to book. Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist gets credit for John Wick's origin story at the Institute, as well as the Bowery King (Lawrence Fishburne) who was modeled after professional pickpocket Charles Fagin. I was willing to tolerate the complete nonsense of villains "Buffalo" and "Billy" - two thirds of "the three Bills" who look like they've stepped right out of a western - because it delivered enough decent content.For example, the praying hands in the center of John's back are based on Albrecht Dürer's "Study of the Hands of an Apostle," which signifies loyalty in the Wickiverse as well as doubling as a "ticket" that saves his life from the huge bounty placed by the High Table. How did a first-time director like Chad Stahelski land one of the world's top talents for his debut with John Wick? Sure, I guess I'll go along for the ride of "a whole town was blown up when he was a kid because he stole some money from drug dealers in Mexico," even if that is absolutely batshit. I'm just so disappointed and annoyed right now, and feel I've already wasted enough of my mental energy on this.